


At the Edge of Space

by psghayleaux



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies), Wonder Woman (Movies - Jenkins)
Genre: Don't copy to another site, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-16
Updated: 2020-08-16
Packaged: 2021-03-06 01:53:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,235
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25935478
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/psghayleaux/pseuds/psghayleaux
Summary: Many years in the future Diana feels she has no ties left to Earth and decides it's time to go see what else the universe has in store. In a bar, she finds a stranger with a familiar face.
Comments: 11
Kudos: 22





	At the Edge of Space

Diana Prince has come to Yorktown. Out at the edge of humanities push into the unknown reaches of space. Everyone she'd once known and loved is long gone. The end of the Justice League severed all remaining ties she had to earth. She never again managed to locate her homeland after leaving to help Steve Trevor stop the Great War as he'd called it then.

So here she is visiting the stars hoping to see what else the universe has to offer beyond the confines of earth. She's considered at various times joining Starfleet. Ultimately having decided against it. Living as your average citizen Diana was still managing to slip from one identity to another every so many years without drawing attention. The ever increasing life span of humanity made it a little easier, she wasn't forced to do so as often as she once had, but Starfleet, they might notice something a little off if one of their members, purportedly of earth, just never aged.

Instead, she was off visiting space on her own. Even traveling to Yorktown was easy enough to accomplish these days, it was a booming metropolis. And she could be on a business trip, or visiting family, or more close to the truth on vacation. No one gave her more than a glance as she made her arrangements and traveled.

Once she'd arrived and checked into her hotel, Diana made her way to an upscale bar nearby. She hoped it would be quieter than the ones more likely to be catering to the visiting Starfleet members stopping by to resupply and unwind before heading back out into the great unknown void of space that Yorktown marked the edge of.

She wasn't wrong. The bar she'd chosen was quiet, subdued, and tastefully decorated.

There were a few patrons scattered about in the booths talking quietly and a lone figure sitting by himself at the bar. Something about the shape of his shoulders under a leather jacket, the way the light shone on his hair; it struck a chord in her. Stirring a memory, she'd long tried to forget.

Diana shrugged it off, she had known many people during her long life. It was unsurprising that she might see a somewhat familiar figure so far from home.

She settled herself towards the end of the bar, hoping to establish that she was uninterested in company and ordered a glass of wine from the bartender when they arrived. She drank and thought no more of the man down the bar from her. Mind far more occupied with what she was going to do with herself out here at the edge of nothing. Maybe she'd see if there were any opens for a teacher, perhaps for history, they would be hard-pressed to find someone more qualified.

***

Sometime later, Diana wasn't sure how long she was on vacation, after all, a voice broke through the gentle murmur of sound in the bar. A familiar voice. One she hadn't heard in a very long time, one she hadn't thought to ever hear again.

"Steve?" she said, barely more than a breath. She turned towards the voice and realized it had come from the man she'd noticed when she'd first entered the bar.

Her breath caught in her throat as she saw him fully. It wasn't just Steve's voice he had, but his face as well. She knew it wasn't him, but the similarities were unmistakable. Diana knew she was staring and forced herself to turn away. It wouldn't do to draw his attention. She didn't think she could speak with him, this stranger with a beloved face.

She focused back on her glass only to find that it was empty. She signaled that she would like a refill. Refusing to glance down the bar, not wanting to catch his eye. Diana noticed movement out of the corner of her eye as a figure settled onto the seat next to hers. Internally she cringed, hoping that she wasn't going to have to fend off a drunken advance.

Steeling herself, she turned to face whoever it that had intruded on her. Then she nearly visibly startled because it wasn't some random bar patron who'd sat down next to her. It was him, the familiar stranger.

"Hi," he said when he saw she'd turned towards him. "Name's Jim Kirk," he held out his hand to her.

Almost against her will, she took it, nearly surprised that it was a flesh and blood hand she touched, not a memory. At least his hand didn't seem so familiar, callused and scarred in different places that Steve's had been.

Diana couldn't bring herself to speak, but he didn't seem worried. Maybe surprised that she showed no recognition of his name.

"I noticed you looking, and figured I didn't have anything else going on, so I might as well say hi," he paused looked at her seeming to notice the unease she thought she'd masked. "Say the word, and I'll take off if that's what you want."

She considered it for a moment. He was rather forward. Just because she's looked didn't mean she was inviting him over, but his willingness to leave if she wanted him to won her over.

"No, you may stay. It's been a while since I let myself chat with a charming stranger at a bar."

He chuckled at that, "I'm charming?"

"A little," she replied with a laugh in her voice.

"You didn't look at me like I was a stranger just now, more like I was a ghost."

Diana thought about telling him to leave after all, unsure if she really wanted to share that much with this Jim Kirk. It must have shown on her face, always more expressive than she realized, because he started talking again.

"If it's too personal, you can just tell me to shut up; despite what my friends might say about me, I am capable of it."

She gave him a bittersweet smile.

"No, it's been a long time. You look like someone very dear to me that I lost a long time ago."

"Oh," he said softly, "You don't need to say anything else if you don't want to know. I get loss. Today was my dad's birthday. I never knew him. He died the days I was born. Although that's not really news, everyone knows that."

"I did not know that about you, Jim, it is an unfortunate thing. I never knew my father, either."

"You really don't know who I am, do you?" He sounded surprised.

"Should I? I will admit I've fallen a little behind the news of late."

"More like for the last 30 years if my name doesn't ring a bell."

"You are very full of yourself."

"Sometimes, but not about that. Everyone in the federation knows about that."

She raised an eyebrow at him. "Guess I was busy."

"I'm not sure you would have been old enough to know what was going on in the news 30 years ago."

She had to laugh at that, "I am far older than I look."

"You are human, right? Because I wouldn't put you any older than 35."

"I am from Earth."

"Nice evasion."

"Is it really being evasive if I'm telling you the absolute truth?"

"Sort of yeah. But I'll drop it for now. So if you don't mind me asking, what was he like? This man I remind you of?

"He was one of the bravest men I've ever known, the first man I ever loved. And though we were only together for a couple of days, I'll never forget him for as long as I might live."

"It sounds like he was a great guy, what happened?"

"He sacrificed himself, his death saved millions more. I hate that he did it, I'm glad that he did, and I miss him every day."

Jim gave a little laugh, "Sounds like my dad, gave his life to save my mom and me, and hundreds of other people serving on the ship he'd been given command of. Not much like me, though."

"Your father sounds like he was a good man, like my Steve, like I'm sure you are as well."

He shrugged, "He left big shoes to fill, and I've made more than my fair share of mistakes along the way."

"My mother is the ruler of a nation, at least she was when last we spoke. My aunt was the commander of one of the greatest armies that earth has even know. I understand." She saw him latch onto the part about her mother and wished she hadn't said that.

Jim showed surprising tact and only asked, "You had a falling out with your mother? Me too."

Diana let out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding when he didn't ask where her mother ruled. "I guess you could call it a falling out. I was told I may never be able to return home, and that in that moment, I was her greatest sorrow."

Jim winced, "Ouch. Mine wasn't quite so poetic about it. She just told me I was going to amount to nothing and to get the hell out of her house. Haven't spoken to her since."

"I am sorry to hear that, Jim. I know I miss my mother, my home still."

"I don't really blame her, I was working on being the biggest fuck up I could at the time. My brother had left years before. I miss her, or maybe the idea of her. She was away a lot when I was growing up, leaving my brother and me with relatives, or if she'd started seeing someone, we'd get left with them. One of them tried to take my dad's Corvette, I drove it off a cliff." He said it like he was just talking about the weather or some other mundane task that it took a moment for her to actually process what he'd said.

"You did what?" She asked, thinking maybe she'd misheard.

"I drove a car off a cliff, well into a quarry, I jumped out, I was fine."

"I feel like fine was the very last thing you were at the time."

He just shrugged. "It was a long time ago."

"Time doesn't heal all wounds."

"This one it did. My crew are my family now, makes it a lot easier to deal with what the one I was born into did or didn't do for me."

"Crew? You're in Starfleet then."

"Yep." He finished his drink in one quick swallow, "Youngest captain ever. On my way to being the most decorated as well."

"That is quite the accomplishment, Jim."

"I guess mostly it was the matter of being in the right place at the right time."

"I would not sell yourself short. If it was all luck, I doubt you would be so unhappy about it."

He just shrugged again. "I grew up in the shadow of my father's sacrifice, with everyone's overwhelming expectations. Like I had to make something great of myself because my father gave his life so a bunch of other people and I could live.

I rebelled, I did everything I could to make myself the opposite of the idealized version of my father I was raised hearing about. And in the end, I found myself in Starfleet anyway. Got lucky, saved the day got a ship. By then, I was so stuck in that way of thinking, of rebelling that I kept being a fuck up. It cost me my ship and my crew."

"You got it back though, you must have shown them that you were an asset."

"I guess. I almost left again, of my own volition."

"What changed?"

"I was reminded of why I loved it. But some days it still gets to be too much. And then like today, I just need a break from everyone to remember my dad. I'm sure Bones' would have been more than happy to keep me company. But today, I just wanted time to myself, without them."

"It is a good place to be alone. I had similar reasons to come here. Although none of them included spending time without my friends. I've only arrived and know no one here yet." She smiled. "Other than you."

"Welcome to the edge of space then." He raised his empty glass to her.

"Thank you, Jim, I'm glad to have met you."

"And I you, Diana." Before he could say anything else his comm beeped, he pulled it out and looked at it. "Well, looks like duty calls. It was nice talking."

"Yes it was," on impulse she decided to give him her card, it had nothing but her name and comm number on it, but she thought it would be nice to get to know this Jim Kirk more, and not just because of his familiar face. "Here, give me a call if you'd like. I'm not sure how long I'll be here, but I have no immediate plans to leave."

"I might just do that," he gave her a charming, heartbreakingly familiar smile, threw down some credits, and was gone fading away through the growing crowd.

Diana settled her tab as well when the bartender came by. Then headed back to her hotel; Yorktown base as it turned out held more interest for her than she'd previously thought.

**Author's Note:**

> I actually wrote is several years ago. It was going to be a longer peice and I do have more written. But I liked it ending here.


End file.
